


Here's A Girl From A Dangerous Town (the Unbroken Heart Remix)

by be_themoon



Category: Torchwood
Genre: F/M, Pre-Series, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-16
Updated: 2010-05-16
Packaged: 2017-10-09 12:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/87289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/be_themoon/pseuds/be_themoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucia Moretti, who won't let anyone break her heart. Lucia Moretti/Jack Harkness, Alice Carter. PG-13 for multiple mentions of death and some language.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here's A Girl From A Dangerous Town (the Unbroken Heart Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galaxysoup](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxysoup/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Days Like This](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/801) by galaxysoup. 



> Beta-ed by the wonderful Metonomia on LJ. Title from "Belfast Tune" by Joseph Brodsky, specifically the first stanza. "Here's a girl from a dangerous town. / She crops her dark hair short / so that less of her has to frown / when someone gets hurt." Thank you so much to galaxysoup, I adored exploring Lucia further from the short glimpses I got of her in "Days Like This."

_File under Date Opened, 1960_

Operative: Lucia Moretti  
Date of Recruitment: April 17th 1960  
                Reason for Recruitment: Abnormal courage in the face of an alien. -JH  
Date of Termination: October 2nd 1975  
Cause of Termination: Retirement  
                Reason for Retirement: Age.  
Positions: Field Operative (17/04/1960-23/01/1972), Medic (13/06/1964-02/10/1968), Logistics and Paperwork (02/10/1968-23/01/1975), Second in Command (23/01/1972-02/10/1975)  
Family: None

+

_1976_

Jack comes to visit every so often. He tries for once a month, but it’s more like twice a year.

“I’m so sorry,” he always says, “I was-”

“Busy, I know,” Lucia always answers, and smiles and accepts the gifts he’s brought and kisses him on the cheek. He tells her about Torchwood every so often, but she never asks. She knows Lily died three weeks after Lucia left, and Carter and Jim died two months before, and the new kids were too young and idealistic for Lucia to take seriously or get to know well. In the end, she’d left because she was becoming a bitter old woman at thirty.

“She knows me already!” Jack coos at Melissa, who shrieks and flails back. “Look at her, she’s the spitting image of me!”

“She is,” Lucia says. “Would you like coffee?” She’ll never admit to him her resentment at being unable to take one thing away from Torchwood that was wholly hers.

+

_1961_

“It’s your bloody fault!” Lucia screams at him, scrabbling for an anchor against the overwhelming grief. “You take stupid chances, you don’t remember that we can die, you _bastard_,” she begins, and then turns and stumbles into the lounge, her legs shaking as she sits down on the couch, futilely wiping at the blood on her hands, but it’s already everywhere and she’s just spreading it more and it makes her feel sick to think that this was once part of Katie’s body, that Katie is in pieces on the table in the medical room. Jack follows but doesn’t come near her, quiet and sad.

“I told you,” he says finally. “I told you before I ever recruited you, Torchwood will break your heart.”

She pulls her legs close to her chest and rocks back and forth, refusing to give in to her tears. No it won't, she vows. Torchwood won’t break _her _heart.

+

_1977_

She sits beside Jack, smoothing his hair back and waiting for him to come back to life.

“What happened?” he says the moment he sputters back, and she shrugs.

“I shot it,” she says. “Melissa and I can’t stay here, we have to move.”

“I’m going to put you in deep cover,” he says softly. “I don’t want people coming after you because of me.”

“Don’t make it all about you,” Lucia says, helping him stand up. “I made some enemies of my own. Fifteen years is more than enough time for grudges.”

“Deep cover,” Jack promises. “I’ll have to come by less.”

“You barely come by as is. You’ll make at least two visits a year,” Lucia says firmly. “I’m not having you break her heart, not while I have any say in it.”

“She won’t even remember me,” Jack begins, and Lucia glares at him.

“A girl needs a father,” she says. “And maybe you’re not ideal, but you do the job credibly, so don’t argue with me.”

+

_1964_

“No, Harkness, I’m not sleeping with you,” Lucia says firmly. “And as you don’t need anything fixed or checked or examined, I’m not even sure what you’re doing in my medical room.”

“It’s a restful place,” Jack says, and Lucia sighs and looks at him.

“Just get out,” she says. “I have to find out where Andrew kept everything.”

“You’ll do a good job, you know,” Jack says. He’s looking at the wall instead of her, his words a little stilted, and she wonders if he’ll ever get better at comfort. Probably not, she thinks. It’s surprisingly comforting.

“Thank you,” she says. “Now get out.”

+

_1980_

“You can’t trust him,” she tells Melissa as she tucks her in after Jack leaves. “He’ll break your heart, one day. He won’t even mean to, but he will.”

“Did he break your heart, mommy?” Melissa asks, and Lucia hesitates and thinks about it for a long moment.

“No,” she says finally, and smiles as she smoothes Melissa’s hair back. “No, sweetie, he didn’t break my heart. But you have to be careful that you don’t expect too much from him, okay?”

+

_1968_

“You’re going to need to write up a report on it, Aaron,” Lucia says, and he looks up red-eyed from his desk.

“She’s dead, and you expect me to write a report?’ he demands, and she nods. “You heartless bitch,” he spits at her, and she shakes her head.

“It’s the job,” she says quietly. “Either it breaks your heart or you don't have one to break.  There’s no other option.”

“So being upset for your friend’s death is wrong somehow?” Aaron says.

“I never said wrong,” Lucia says. “But you also have to write up a report about it.”

He brings it to her desk later that day and she puts a copy in Ellen Green’s box of paperwork, most of it slightly messy, stains and ink spills on the edges. After she seals the box, it will be put with the other belongings of former Torchwood employees in a cavernous vault below the Hub. In the eight years she’s been with them, twelve boxes have been placed down there. She wrote reports for seven of them, dead on group missions with her there. She couldn’t tell you what any of them but the first liked for breakfast or to wear.

Maybe she _is_ getting too cynical.

+

_1985_

“You’ll like it,” she tells Melissa. “It’ll be more fun than just me teaching you, you can do it with other people, okay?”

“Yeah,” Melissa says, but she doesn’t look happy about it, scuffing her feet against the pavement as she heads into the karate classes. When Lucia comes by an hour later to pick her up, Melissa is sitting disconsolately on a bench outside.

“I pinned my partner like you showed me,” she says. “He was a lot bigger than me, and he got mad and called me a bitch.”

“It doesn’t matter what he thinks of you, just that you can take care of yourself,” Lucia says fiercely. “Don’t ever let what a man says hurt you, do you hear? You’re better than all of them. You’re mine.”

“I don’t want to be different,” Melissa says, and Lucia pulls her in close. “I want a normal dad, who’s around all the time.”

“You know he can’t be,” Lucia says softly. “You know people wouldn’t understand.”

“Does he love me?” Melissa asks, and Lucia leads her back to the bench and sits down.

“Oh baby girl,” she says. “He loves you so much, more than he loves anyone else. But he’s got different priorities than you, or even me. You have to remember that he loves you, but you have to remember that if it means saving the world, neither of us mean anything to him. He’ll be sorry if he has to hurt us, but he’ll do it anyway. You have to remember that. Promise me you’ll remember.”

“I promise,” Melissa says very quietly.

+

_1972_

“Congratulations,” Jack says. “You deserve it.”

“What, being stuck with paperwork for the rest of my life?” Lucia says, looking up, her smile hard. It's not a joke - no second in command has lasted more than three years that she knows of, and none of them retired. Jack shrugs and her smile softens a bit. “Thanks,” she says, and he sits on the edge of her desk, looking down thoughtfully at her.

“You’ve gotten hard,” he says.

“I said I wouldn’t let this job break my heart,” Lucia says. “Turns out the only other option is not having a heart to break.”

“You’ve got a heart,” Jack says. “More of one than I do.”

“Don’t bet on it,” she says, and puts her hand on his neck, pulls him down to kiss him hard.

“I won’t,” he murmurs. He sounds regretful, like he’s broken something precious. Maybe he did, all those years ago when he recruited her. She can't remember _before _enough to know.

+

_2006_

“Remember, he’ll break your heart,” Lucia says as fiercely as she can manage, and Melissa nods.

“I know, mama,” she says. “I remember.”

“Good girl,” Lucia says. “Now promise me something.”

“Anything,” Melissa says.

“You keep Steven safe.”

“Mama! I’d die before I let someone hurt him,” Melissa says. “You know that.”

“Keep him safe from Jack,” Lucia says.  Melissa is silent, but she understands. Lucia can tell. “I love you,” she says. “Tell Jack goodbye, and that I’m sorry.”

“I will,” Melissa says, and Lucia closes her eyes.

Jack told her once death was dark, and horrible, and alone. She’ll take her chances like everyone else, she supposes.


End file.
